Mazzone: ‘Mmusi, a thing of the past for the DA, no one really talks about him’

As members of the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, prepare to vote for a new leader, the blue party’s former chief whip, Natasha Mazzone, reflected on the glaring exodus of black leaders.

During an interview with veteran news anchor Iman Rapetti, in which Mazzone was asked about the morale of members since the departure of former leader Mmusi Maimane, Mazzone acknowledged the party had gone through darker times.

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DA emerges from the dark blues

“We had a horrible time because we had the resignation of our leader and very horrible circumstances,” said Mazzone.

Mazzone said after the period of harsh reviews and the exodus of black leaders, the party had to enter coalitions which was new for them at the time.

“It [coalitions] was a completely new concept that South Africa was going into and it’s a concept that we are now accustomed to and know how to deal with, but at the time it was incredibly difficult,” admitted Mazzone.

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She described how some members felt “extremely let down”, and how current leader John Steenhuisen, worked to get the party through those years.

“We went from feeling extremely let down and despondent to feeling to really hopeful, seeing an amazing leader, leading us forward, being with us on the streets, going door to door with us, never having to worry about, ‘is the leader going to be with us, or is he going to be in his office.'”

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Mmusi who?

When asked if members still talk about Maimane, Mazzone replied that the former leader isn’t really talked about in the party anymore.

“I don’t think he’s really talked about anymore, he doesn’t really feature in the party ranks. He went his way, we went our way. He started his own movement and he does what he needs to do, we have our own party and our party chooses to move forward.”

Mazzone explained the party had moved on at a rapid rate, thanks to Steenhuisen’s leadership. Mazzone explained that despite taking a drastic knock in the polls in 2019, she believes the DA recovered by the time 2021 rolled around.

“We are seeing an improvement, we are seeing the door to door interactions improving dramatically and we’re seeing just normal face to face interactions…people are happy to see us again.”

“There was a point where people were really sort of agitated, they were like ‘come Democratic Alliance’ you were the guys that weren’t always internally fighting you were the guys that had it together you were the organised party, we lost that and I think we got that back.”

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